All or Nothing
by KyoKyo866
Summary: In a desperate attempt to pay off his debt to China, America allows him to take out some of his organs to sell. However, the longer he does the process, the longer it takes to regenerate back to health. In a final chance to break his contract, America gambles the final rights to body in an all or nothing cat and mouse chase with his contractor, all with the help of his own brother.
1. Chapter 1

America huffed as he jumped over a fallen tree trunk, glancing over his shoulder for a moment before quickly back to the front. He slowly came to a stop, doubling over to set his hands on his knees to just have a moment to catch his breath. He reached over and unlocked his canteen from his belt, taking a good gulp out of it before putting it back.

Today was the final day, he just had to make it through without being caught and he was free for another month.

He wiped his mouth from the excess water before lifting the edge of his tank top to wipe the sweat from his forehead. He took a few more breaths before looking up, seeing a cloudless sky past the treetops. It really was a beautiful day to be outside, a great day to claim victory! With this thought in mind, he stretched his arms upwards, just relaxing for a moment in figuring he was far ahead at this point.

He froze however, hearing a crack of a stick nearby, glancing over to the source of the noise and tensing as he saw a blur of black go behind a tree. Shit, he was close. Without hesitation, he took off in the opposite direction he saw the blur, dodging the tropical trees left and right. He pushed his glasses up briefly turning on his heel to change directions, hearing some shuddering of trees some ways back behind him.

The blonde's eyes widened as he saw the end of the jungled forest coming up, seeing a layout of sand and the sparkling ocean not too far away. A dead end?! Deciding to go for it, he sprinted forward faster and jumped from the terrain shift of hardened ground to soft sand.

"Uwaaaaaaaah!"

America jumped as he heard a familiar scream, turning over to see Italy and Germany near the shore line. The German, having previously in a lawn chair reading a book but now was standing up, with the Italian seemed to be ankle deep in water. He cracked a smile and raised a hand up to wave at them, but soon ran towards the both of them.

"Hey guys, vacation?"

"Well, yes. We thought this was a private beach," Germany replied in an almost irritated tone, but blinked as America just went past him to look around. "And just what are you doing here?"

"Oh you know, this and that. Running for my life. Hey Italy, how's it going?"

"Oh, going great, America!~"

"Wait wait, running for your life?" Germany turned towards America once again; who he noticed was looking at his lawn chair again before just pacing back and forth, as if looking for a specific landmark around the area. He raised an eyebrow at the strange behavior, stepping closer to him to try to hope he could make him stand still for just a moment. "What do you mean running for your—"

"You haven't seen your buddy Japan today, right?" America didn't hesitate to interrupt the German, taking the small chance to take another drink from his canteen swiftly.

"What does Japan have to do with any-"

"We tried to invite Japan to come with us, ve, but he said he was busy for the week!" Italy chirped up, coming out of the water and briefly shaking off his feet, only to get them dirty by walking onto the warm sand. "It's a shame; this is perfect weather for sunbathing!"

"Uh-huh, uh-huh cool." America muttered half-heartedly to the side, turning around in a full circle before looking to Germany. "Is there any towns on this island at all? Well like, nearby."

"Well, Chinatown is about a few miles from here."

"Shit, I was afraid of that." He cursed under his breath one more time before looking down. "What the fuck am I going to do now?"

"Yatta. Target acquired."

America jumped as a familiar voice seemed to carry over to them in the warm summer breeze, making both Italy and Germany turn back to where the sand met the trees. Germany flinched even more as America suddenly squeaked an almost feminine yelp as something black jumped out of the tree, doing a front flip once or twice before landing on their feet on the sand a good fifteen feet from them.

"Ve, Japan? Is that you?"

Japan perked, blinking a few times at seeing his friends on the beach with his prey. He glanced down to his ninja attire he had worn for the chase, pulling up his face mask a bit more up in almost embarrassment. He faltered back, pushing the hilt of his sword on his back down a bit and moving his scarf up a little as well.

"Ah, er… Hello Italy. Hello Germany."

"Uwaah! I love your outfit! I haven't seen you wear that since we went on secret missions together!"

"Just what the hell is going on!?"

America ducked behind the German's broad shoulders, trying to use this moment of embarrassment to his advantage and just try to conceal himself. Of course it didn't exactly work as he heard Japan clear his throat and heard a familiar 'shing' of his sword being pulled out.

"If you do not mind, I need America. Germany, please stand aside."

"I'm not doing anything until someone tells me what's going on," Germany grumbled, standing his ground at this point. He felt a small movement near his hip but at the moment decided not to look, staring down the Asian nation across from him. The man sighed, lowering his small sword for a moment, brows bent together in almost a matter of pressing desperation.

"I will explain later, time is of the essence I need him right now."

"Like hell you do!"

Germany didn't even have the proper time to react as he was shoved out of the way, seeing as he was pushed to the side that America had snuck out Germany's pistol he was hiding. At regaining his balance, he decided to step back to where Italy was, instantly feeling him cling behind him in fear. America stared hard at the other, Japan lifting up his sword in a defensive position as the gun pointed right at him.

"I'm not fucking going anywhere, man."

"You realize if you shoot, the rules will be altered."

"If that means an easier win for me," America grinned, cocking the gun back and putting Japans heads in his sights, "so be it."

**Bang!**

America's jaw dropped as he lowered the pistol, not even having to look to see Germany and Italy's mouth suddenly hang ajar. With a simple change in his wrists at the last seconds, Japan flicked the sword over and deflected the bullet right before it hit right between his eyes. The man stayed still for a moment, almost letting the shock of practically surviving go down before setting his sword, that was only slightly dented now, into an attack position.

"Restriction 181 lifted. Firearms now can be put into play."

"Well… shit."

Without missing a beat, Japan charged forward to the American, the other starting to fire round of another at him, not being able to hit his mark properly with a moving target. He slowed his rate of fire, knowing he had limited ammo. He gasped as suddenly Japan jumped into the air, while looking up to him he stumbled backwards, missing his footing and tripping over his own heels to land flat on his back on the sand. His eyes widened as the other leaped above him, sword pointed downwards in intent to finish him off.

He had only one shot left; he had to make it count!

Quickly raising his pistol and turning it to get the man in his sights once more, he fired his last shot. The bullet whizzed up and in no time at all hit the desired target. Right through his left eye. America grunted as the now limp body fell against him, the sword narrowly missing him as now the Asian man's body was useless.

He winced as he heard Italy shrieking, quickly pushing the dead weight off of him, scrunching up his nose at seeing the man's now red socket bleeding out profusely. Well, that gave him a good five or ten minute advantage at least.

"J-Japan! O-Oh my god!"

"What the hell was that for?!"

"You saw him; he was going to kill me!" America quickly retorted before dropping the now empty gun. "He'll be awake really soon, he's used to those kinda shots by now and it's only just the eye. Don't tell him where I went!" He began to grin, not even minding that the other two fellow nations stared at him like he was crazy.

He ran forward again, jogging out at first to try to head back into the forest. If he could get them to lose their tracks for some more hours he was home free! Then he could be free from—

_Shink_.

America's running soon slowed to a stop as he felt a sharp prick in his neck. Instinctually he reached up to see what it was, pulling out a small dart that had been previously stuck in there. His vision began to blur instantaneously, making him drop the item and try to step forward to advance anyway, but knew he had no control over his body any longer.

"Foor.. fucckksss… saaakkeee….."

With that, he was out like a light. His body crumpled to the ground right then, being just as limp as the Asian he offed not even five minutes ago.

At this, Italy and Germany looked at each other at just confusion of what suddenly transpired right in front of them. Italy stepped out from behind Germany, looking down to Japan with a small frown.

"He's… used to this?" he mumbled in a concerned tone, looking over to the blond who just shrugged, not knowing how to really reply to him. He looked upwards to the fallen America not too far away, tilting his head in a bit of curiosity. "What happened to America then? Did someone get him?"

"Ai-yaaaah!~ That was a close one! Woohoo!"

The both of them jumped at the sudden loud voice, both of them turning to the nearby cliffside, only down seeing a familiar nation standing up, bringing up a sniper rifle that was perched atop of the cliff only moments before. Their mouths hung in the newer turn of events, Italy flinching as the other jumped down the cliffside to join them on the same level.

"Would've lost him if he went back into the jungle again! Got him just in time! Aru, what a rush!"

"China… what are you guys doing here?" Germany finally asked, staying in his place as the shorter older nation walked right past him and over to Japan's side.

"Xiao didi, you okay?" China tilted his head down at him, kneeling down and gently shaking his shoulder as if just trying to wake the other up from sleeping. "Come on, now. We won! Need you to be awake to have a celebration, or else you're gonna miss out."

"…Hnngh…. I'm here…"

"Oh good!" China beamed as he pat Japan's back for a moment before standing up, "dinner's on me tonight! Good job as always, xiao didi!"

"Mm… five more minutes…." Japan's working eye glanced up at China for a moment, grunting quietly as he brought one of his own hands over to pull down his face mask and gently press one of the ends of his scarf against his now barely bleeding eye.

"When we get out of here, you can rest all you like." China noted, giving one nod in assurance before he tensed at hearing a loud clearing of a throat. He turned to Germany and Italy, blinking as he practically forgot they were there. "Oh, hi. Mind giving me a hand getting these two into town?"

"Only if you tell us what's going on," Germany said gruffly, pretty obvious he had lost his patience on all of the madness that was going down.

"I'll tell you it in a nutshell once you get me into town, America's only going to be unconscious for so long." China compromised, motioning to the body not too far away from them with almost a sense of urgency.

Germany rolled his eyes but motioned to Italy to take Japan, the other nodding and going over to gently help Japan to his feet and hold onto him under his arms so he could stay standing. The German went over to the America and with very little difficulty, threw him over his shoulders. The two waited until China lead the way into the jungle to show them the way into town, the leader once in a while texting on his cell phone.

The entire group was silent the entire way, not exactly what even to say about the very strange predicament they were suddenly in. Within about fifteen minutes, the gates of Chinatown towered above the group, the whirring of helicopter blades being heard past the main entrance.

"Ah good, they got my text," China muttered to himself before motioning the group to the helicopter, "we need to get them in there, I'll take it from there."

Without much to say, the German and the Italian complied and helped the two handicapped nations into the main cabin of the helicopter. Right after, Germany looked over to China, frowning as he watched him get inside of the aircraft as well,

"All right, we did what you said! Now explain! What's going on!?"

China gave the two of them an excited grin, looking back to the sleeping America for a moment before back to the other two.

"What's going on is that I'm about to make some big money! Bàibài!"

With that, China shut the door in both of the nation's faces, not too soon after the helicopter taking off up into the air and heading in presumably the direction to head towards China's house.

Now just on their own, Italy and Germany were left to stare off where the other nations flew off to and both of them couldn't help but wonder…

Just what the hell did America do and how long had this been going on?


	2. Chapter 2

"Yo, you wanted to see me?"

"Mm? Oh, right right. Come in. I'll be just a moment."

America nodded once in acknowledgement before coming into the office type room quietly, closing the door behind him. As he stepped over to the plush red chair that sat in front of China's desk, the blonde slipped his hoodie off, cracking a grin as he glanced over to the large window at the end of the room, pushing up his glasses to try to get the glare off of them.

"Heh, for January, you got the heat cranked up pretty high huh?"

"..."

"… Pretty bright and sunny for a winter day, expected the place to be covered in snow, heh."

"Mhm."

America pursed his lips at the curt answer, left to just lean back in the chair, cross his legs and twiddle his thumbs as he waited for the Asian to finish whatever paperwork he was working on. A few minutes or so later, he sat up straight, seeing China set down his pen and put the filled out paper aside. China quietly sighed before bringing up his hands, making a bridge out of his fingers to be a secure spot to rest his chin on.

"So, America. What attempts have you made to pay, or at least attempt to pay, back that loan you owe me."

Instantly, America froze up at this, glancing to the side and grinning nervously. China's eyes easily narrowed at this display, it being obvious the other hadn't done a god damn thing.

"Dammit, America!" China yelled, pulling his hands away from each other to slam on top of the desk top. "It's been years and you've barely done a thing to try to pay me back! Instead you just keep spending on that military budget, do you even need that much?"

"Hey hey, we're still in a war over here!"

"More than a trillion dollars you owe! _Trillion!_ Do you know what that could have done with that much money?!"

At this, America was left silent, opening and closing his mouth a few times before just crossing his arms and puffing out his cheeks at being defeated in the argument. China gave another exasperated sigh as he picked up his pen he had previously set down, subconsciously starting to click the end of it as a form of stress relief. He closed his eyes, using his other hand to rub his temple as he could all ready feel a headache coming on.

"I am getting a lot of heat from this issue. I don't want to be the "bad guy" about this, but you need to think of something, and soon. We hope we can get that money back, or at least half of it, within the next few years."

"_Few_ years?!" America exclaimed, leaning forward in his seat at the incredulous goal set. "Our economy is super shit right now, the war is still tearing us apart and oil is slipping out of our hands. How the hell do you expect us to pay back that much to you guys?"

"How am I supposed to know?" China said with a shrug, opening one eye back up to stare down the much younger nation. He took a few deep breaths through his noses before standing up. "Look, I don't have all the answers either, that's why I called you here so we could work something out. Knowing you, if I left you alone with this, you'd push it off to the last second and then come up with some crap idea."

America could feel his face getting hotter in both frustration and a tinge of embarrassment and he knew that yea, he probably would procrastinate on something like that. It wasn't like it was an easy topic to figure out. He tapped his fingers on his forearms for a moment before uncrossing his legs, looking back up to the Chinese man.

"What if I gave you part of my pay check every month?"

"Unless your paycheck is five million a month, that won't be any good."

He huffed again at his idea being rejected so easily, biting his inner cheek as he thought to himself. What the hell could he do to actually raise enough money? Whatever they had to make money wise had to go to the rest of the country, it wasn't exactly easy to be able to get a large amount of money to an outside source.

While America thought, China moved away from his desk to go over to the large window, looking out from the large office building to the bustling city below them. What could they possibly do to get a large sum of money in a short amount of time; America wasn't the only one at stake about achieving that goal. Something… something they could do perhaps under the table. Able to get a large amount of money in a short amount of time—

"The black market."

"Wha?"

China turned an about-face from the window to look at the now confused America, a small smile of hope showing on his face.

"We will work with the black market. If you sell yourself, you can make big money."

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" At the idea, America leapt up from his chair, standing at his full height and almost towering over the short man, "I am not going to become a prostitute over a god damn loan! I'm not _that_ desperate!"

China rose his hands up in defense at the larger nation yelling down at him, instinctually taking a step back just in case the young man had the idea to possibly punch him for such a claim. He honestly wouldn't put it past him.

"Well, that part is a no. But there is another way to get a lot of money on the black market without doing sex."

"Oh yea? How… how so?" America raised an eyebrow skeptically, not having a good feeling about what was going to be offered at all.

"Do you know how much a healthy liver costs in my country? Just one?"

"E-er…"

"Approximately 130,000 dollars, American dollars at that. Same with the heart. The pancreas rounds out around 110,000 and just one kidney alone is up there around 65,000."

America shifted his eyes back and forth nervously, taking a few steps backwards to find his designated seat and to sit back into it. How did China even know this information? Better yet, did he even want to know? He lowered his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose, wanting to keep that idea as just a thought too crazy to actually pull off but, it actually was making sense.

"You're a country, America." China murmured, quietly going over to America's side and setting a hand on his shoulder, trying to so some support for the horrific sounding option. "A thriving young nation at that. If we were to operate on you and take out one or two a month, you'd be back to normal before you know it."

"Selling… selling organs- _my_ organs?" America let out a shaky breath, clenching and unclenching his free hand in just trying to think about the pros and cons about this. It didn't help he was put right on the spot about it.

Then again, what much else choice did he have?

"I'll let you stay in the villa during your recovery. The medical bills can just be taken out of your… let's just say profit. I know a way to do it that will make it affordable and comfortable. You'll have days of being blacked out but that's to be expected."

Americas face slowly slunk into his face, breathing loudly into his gloved hands; only have the sound come out a bit muffled. It did seem like a decent procedure, just being put to sleep for most of it.

"…. How will we keep our bosses from knowing?"

China perked at this, surprised America was going with the idea a lot sooner than he expected. Then again, there weren't many other alternatives.

"We'll tell them you're doing work alongside me to earn extra money, like jobs and such. Jobs that take you out of the way every month like paving roads or doing sewer work. Odd jobs."

"… All right. I'll do it. I'll let you have my organs."

"Ai-yaah!" China cheered with a fist pump in the air, rounding around his desk to pull up some paperwork before finding a fresh piece of paper. He began out of instinct to right down familiar Chinese characters, furrowing his brows before scribbling it out and writing in English. America didn't even bother to look up as he just decided to pull his face away from his hands and stare down his hands.

What the hell was he getting himself into?

"Here we go! One contract to make sure we understand each other on this."

America looked over at seeing China lift up a piece of paper from his desk. With a shaky hand he reached out and gently took it from the others hand. He cleared his throat, deciding to just try to read it out loud to make sure nothing sounded off.

"I… blank spot right there, agree to be operated on by the nation of China to have one organ removal, of compromised choice, per month to be able to sell to medical buyers within the Chinese nation to be able to pay off the loan of China to America. This operation is to be done once a month, with recovery time and medical bills being paid for by the purchase of said organ. Failure to comply with the regulations of the contract will result in the purchases of prior operations being pulled out from the debt."

America had to pause at this, looking up to China at a look of disbelief at such a high risk being attached to a simple operation. At seeing the look, China raised an eyebrow at him before nodding.

"Yes, I thought that would be fair to put that in. That's mostly if you decide to just skip town on me. If something is happening around that time that you need to be functional for or if you're sick, we'll work around it." China explained, reaching out to take the paper back and write on it some more before handing it back.

"…. –pulled out from the debt. However, if something is to arise to interfere from the operation, either an event, an illness or a third-party action, negotiations can be made." America glanced over the terms and conditions of the contract once more to make sure everything was in order before he sighed, getting up from the chair to head over to the desk. "Seems to be in order I guess."

"Great!" China chirped, waiting until America gave him the paper before setting it out in front of him, signing in a line of his own for a witness to the contract being signed.

"Wang Yao … undersigned, China."

China nodded once in satisfaction of his signature, turning the paper around and pushing it in front of America, handing him the pen along with it. America hesitated as he saw the paper that was signing away basically his body right in front of him. With a shaky sigh, he took hold of the pen and set it against the paper's bottom, carefully scribbling his name on the lines needing his signature.

"Alfred F. Jones … undersigned, United States of America."


	3. Chapter 3

America didn't remember much about his first operation, he knew he threw up the morning of though because of the nervousness. When he arrived at China's, Japan was there to escort him to the medical portion they made just for him in the house, along the way just trying to talk to him calmly and explain the situation. Which didn't exactly help.

Once he was stripped and put on the operating table, both China and Japan were over him in the usual surgery garb. It would have seemed that to make sure no humans would rat them out or to be suspicious about all of these organ removals, China and his now acting little brother nurse would do the operation themselves. He remembered how even though he tried to remain tough during it all; he couldn't help hiccupping a sob or so out of fear.

Who else would act courageous at learning their heart was going to be removed to be sold on the black market?

They tried to gently talk to him to calm him down, once getting him to be quiet to just slip a gas mask over his nose and mouth to let him go to sleep.

Next thing he knew, he woke up in a very soft large bed in a very nice scented room, feeling tired and a little weak but nothing too much.

About a full seven days after the operation was done to him.

By then his old heart was all ready sold and shipped, and his new one was working decently well. It only took him another day to be able to go back home in a decent amount of health.

Months passed, after the first operation, a total of five more organs taken from him, each being a simple procedure to only have him die for a week while it regenerated or had him kept to bed rest.

And the longer the process on through the year, America was getting more sick and tired of it.

Not that it was a painful process to go through or he wasn't getting support from those that were operating on him. They were quite true to their word about taking care of him. But just being sickly and out of commission for so long was beginning to get to him. There had to be a way around it. And he was fully determined to do so.

"China!"

China jumped, swiftly covering his arms over the piece of paper he was doodling on to try to hide what he was doing. He blinked though, only seeing it was America who busted in. He pursed his lips in a bit of annoyance before uncovering his arms from his paper, just going back to doodling.

"Ai-yah, is it the fifteenth all ready? Time sure does fly. So what were we thinking of this month, I was thinking perhaps the liver would have a good market this m—"

"I want a break."

The pencil pause mid stroke, China blinking a few times as if trying to make sure he heard him right before setting his pencil down. He crossed his arms onto the table, leaning on them a bit as he looked up to America.

"You're under contract. I know for a fact you have nothing going on, Japan double checked with you the other day how your schedule looked. Nothing's come up since then, right?"

America clenched his hands for a moment before stepping up to the desk, simply slamming his hands on the top of it. Though he was mostly just trying to make a dramatic effect.

"It's hard to keep going like this! We've been going at this for half a year all ready and I only have a couple of weeks to feel and be myself until you yank a part of me out that either kills me or makes me sick! I need a break!"

"Contract."

"God, why are you so hard headed about that damn contract?! Can't you just let it slide for once?"

"If I let it slide once, you'll keep walking over me until the contract would practically be a useless piece of paper!" China said, pushing himself up out of his seat to try to stand against America despite their height difference. "If you want a break, it has to be in the contract!"

"Fuck the contract!"

"Ai-yah, watch your mouth!"

Simultaneously the both of them took in a deep frustrated breath through their nose before turning away from each other, knowing fully well they were at an impasse. America glanced over to the side, noticing amongst the scattered papers on the desk, their contract was part of it. He picked it up and glanced over the content on it. There had to be _something_ he could use to his advantage.

_However, if something is to arise to interfere from the operation, either an event, an illness or a third-party action, negotiations can be made._

There had to be something in there, that was his only chance.

Something….. something…..

"Hm, hold on." America murmured as he raised an eyebrow, an idea suddenly striking him. "China, are you a gambling man?"

China's ears perked at the question, glancing over to the blonde in a bit of skeptic curiosity.

"Perhaps, why?"

"Well, it says here that an event to interfere with the operation we can negotiate about it." America grinned, fully turning toward the other as he waved the contract in his hand a little. "What if we were both in the middle of something during the time so we wouldn't know exactly if I would be able to do the operation or not?"

"What? That's absurd; none of us are doing anything." China scoffed and rolled his eyes at the other's suggestion, but slowly turned towards him as well, curiosity still gleaming in his eyes. "But it has to do with gambling?"

"How about we play a game," America started grinning as a thousand thoughts were buzzing through his head to connect together to formulate this idea just right. "A game to catch me somewhere, like another country or something. Kinda cat and mouse kinda deal. I get like, a week or something to hide out and if I win, I get to skip that month. If you catch me before the operation date, everything goes as planned and I won't complain."

China stared at him for a while, furrowing his brows and furrowing in brows at a combination of just confusion and unable to process the others stupidity.

"How is that even a good idea?"

"Double or nothing." America quickly added, his grin growing as he saw China blink at the term. "Either I outsmart you and I take a break, or when you catch me, you have my permission to take away twice as many organs. Just think, if you do this every time you get double the revenue."

"Hm… I do like more money."

"It'll be fun! Besides, since we're out doing 'odd jobs' we might as well use our time to go exploring!" America was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet as his idea was just near being accepted. He set the contract down, now just letting China think about it all. The man closed his eyes in though, running the scenario through his head a few times before he finally nodded.

"Sure, I can go for some adventure. Double or nothing, it is."

"Yes! I'll go rest u—"

"Wait a second, we need rules!" China quickly shouted, motioning America to sit on the chair that was across from his desk while he himself sat in his own. America complied pretty quickly, now just holding his hands together in his lap, trying to contain his excitement. "… hm… from how you explained your idea, you wander around in a random country?"

"Well we both could decide it so you actually know where you're looking. And depending how big maybe I hide out for like… a week? Probably have a day to actually get there and find a spot before you come after me."

"That seems like a long time, but I suppose I'd need a lot of time to find you." China circled his finger on top of the desk's top, not exactly sure why he's going along with the asinine idea in the first place. Probably because he was just too bored in his day job. What's the harm and shaking it up a little? "How would I be able to find you without a map anyway?"

"Nations usually know the vague direction of where some kind of other nation is, at least that's what England says since that's how he found me and quite a bit of the other nations." America stated, nodding once in his reliable information. "We feel it all the time, just need to tap into that, I guess."

"Hmmm… I know what you're talking about, that's fair enough. But in ways of hiding out in general, you can't go underground either, that's not fair. Or hide out in someone's house without permission, unless they know what you're going through. I doubt anyone would want a wanted man in their house for too long."

"Mhm, yea." America nodded, crossing his arms once again as he tried to think of some of the rules for their chase as well. "… No nets, no guns. Can't just shoot me in the back, that's cheap. And I won't be able to shoot you either."

"What? How can I catch you then?"

"I don't know, just need to get creative about it! I don't know, if I do somehow use guns, maybe that means you can use them too." He leaned back into his chair, glancing upwards vaguely. "Yea yea, if I break a rule then it's okay for you to do the same. But I'll probably just stick to it, there's not a lot of rules."

China pulled a spare paper to the side while the other mentioned it, jotting down some notes about the transaction between them before he would forget.

"Hm, though you and I have a large age gap. I'm not as strong or fast as you are, not anymore. Can I get some help?"

"Eeeeeh…." America winced back at the request for help, not liking his chances of survival going down by allowing China to work with someone better than him. "Depends, who'd you have in mind?"

"Japan. You owe him quite a bit of money too; perhaps he could agree to help track you down with some profits from the double spending also going to him." China grinned at the idea, twirling the pen in his hand as he glanced up to America to see how he would fare with this opinion.

"Japan? Psh, he acts more like an old man than you do. Sure, he can help. Probably won't make too much of a difference anyway! Ahahaha!"

With a small nod of acknowledgement, China wrote down a few more things before glancing over to the clock. His eyes widened a bit before standing up.

"Ai-yah, I'm going to be late for a meeting downtown!" he exclaimed, setting his pen aside to be able to grab some paperwork on the side. "You can go home or wherever you're staying at for now, I'll call you after the meeting to talk more about those rules. Today's the… today's the twelfth, not the fifteenth. We're figure out a starting date later."

"All right, cool!" America said, for once beaming with hope for his future. He stepped aside as China ran out the door in a fluster. Even though it was days away, he knew this was when everything was going the change for the better.

The game was on.


	4. Chapter 4

America winced very lightly at the dull light pressing against his eyelids, making him shift under his incredibly comfortable thick blankets to try to shield himself from it. He huffed quietly as he just pulled the blankets over his head, though his time down there was not long as he just peeled them back to actually be able to breathe.

He rubbed his eyes as he gave a loud yawn, raising his arms up to stretch as he smacked his lips together dryly. Out of instinct he reached over and fumbled his hand on the nightstand, taking the water that was always placed beside him for his awakening, ungraciously popping off the lid and drinking greedily, though being careful to not get the water all over him in the process.

Even though he was still waking up, something felt a little off. He didn't feel gross and sickly, just really groggy. Usually with taking out the liver and kidney he would be feeling a lot worse off, though he wasn't exactly in a position to complain. Yet.

"Aah, there's my favorite patient!"

America's ears perked as he heard the familiar accent of his 'employer', licking his lips for a moment to clear off any of the stray droplets of water before setting the water bottle aside and just flopping back down on his fluffy pillows. He crossed his arms over the blanket, pouting up at the raven haired man as he approached the bed.

"That dart was so fucking cheating."

"And you shooting Japan in the face wasn't? You started it." China said, grinning down to him in just seeing him roll his eyes and drop the disappointed act. "I caught you fair and square. Where does that make us? 8 to 5 now, was it?"

"Uuuuggh, I guess." America pulled up his blankets once more at having rubbed in his face that China had somehow managed to catch him more times than he was able to escape. He was so close, dammit! The other chuckled and he just huffed again, pulling his blanket back down. "Buh, anyway. What's my meal for the day? Starved over here, man! Ya must have used more anesthesia than usual to just make me really sleepy. Or bumped up the morphine, this is pretty decent."

For a moment, China faltered, glancing side to side as if something seemed off about the normal procedure that America had noticed. Quickly though, he waved his hand to try to dismiss it, pushing up his grin wider.

"Right, right! Well, the operation went great and after all of that excitement in the tropics, I thought you'd like something just nice and refreshing. Ah, Japan! Come on in!"

Just as commanded, Japan maneuvered his way into the room, being careful to carry a tray of food in his hands. He gave a small almost wary smile to America as he approached him, the blonde figuring that Japan might be still a bit sour about the whole shooting his eye out thing. Which he couldn't exactly blame him. America pushed himself up to be sitting against the pillows and headboard of the bed, giving Japan room to set the tray of food down to him as he slipped his glasses on to see better.

"So today we made a nice Salmon burger with some spinach, avocado and tomato, and also some sweet potato fries and carrot sticks in the side. The ketchup on the side is freshly made too! And for a little treat on the side, some dark chocolate covered strawberries, blueberries and acai berries. Also some red wine since you'd probably like a nice palate cleanser. Very nice year, 1928 I believe!"

America grinned at the splay of food in front of him, seeing how everything was expertly crafted and presented in front of him. Though something seemed a bit wrong. Yes, China's post-operation meals were absolutely fantastic every time but there was something still off… What was it…?

"Wait a sec," America noted, muttering quietly as the reason why this seemed weird was just on the tip of his tongue. "This seems cool and all but something seems kinda... weird."

"Ah, I know it's a bit on the 'healthy' side but you know we have to take care of that body of yours," China scrunched his nose very lightly almost in emphasis of the importance having to take care of his money-making patient. "But when you're ready to go tomorrow, Japan and I are very willing to take you to the McDonalds near the villa before taking you to the airport. Our treat! Isn't that right, Japan?"

"Hai. Despite it being a McDonalds, it is made with very high quality for higher up business men and nations like us."

"See? He agrees."

Fantastic healthy stuff _and_ free McDonalds? Something was definitely up with them.

America looked back and forth between them before back to the food. Something about the fish… the fish… how was it exactly healthy for him?

Wait.

"… Why are you serving me food that's good towards my heart?" America finally said, narrowing his eyes lightly as he saw China's eyes subtly widen in a bit of shock that he might have been caught. "You took out my pancreas and kidney, right? Usually you don't put this kind of stuff with the recovery meals for those ones."

China looked to Japan almost in a distressed fashion, pleading for some sort of excuse to give him, but Japan lightly frowned and shook his head, knowing that the jig was up. Surprisingly. America looked between them again, this time instead of narrowing his eyes, they began to widen in a bit of panic. If what he thinks happened, then they just made him miss something important.

"What day is it?"

"It's… the 29th." China finally said, sighing as he knew they had just had to be up front with him. "You've been asleep for two weeks."

"_Two weeks!?_" America practically yelped as he lurched forward in instinct to just go right out of bed to get dressed. However he was instantly stopped by Japan, and in his condition he didn't exactly have the strength to go against him pushing him to the bed to make him stay. "You took out my heart!? What the hell, man!? That wasn't what we agreed on! Do you know what you made me miss!?"

"Look look, I know this seems bad," China raised his arms up in a bit of defense, thankful Japan was on standby to make sure America stayed put. "But we really had no choice."

"Like hell you did! Ya probably did it just to scrape me some extra dough!"

"No, America, I'm being serious here. You know I wouldn't do that." China said, his stern tone making America falter just a bit at the atmosphere change. "When we dissected your body, it was the oddest thing. Your pancreas hadn't grown back in fully yet."

"Wait- what?!"

"It functioned, but not by much, it was very under developed. I'm surprised you couldn't tell the difference with all of your exploring." China shrugged lightly, pulling a nearby chair close to sit down and be at least somewhat eye to eye with him. "The market is very peculiar about how their organs are chosen; no one would what a puny barely functioning thing. Your liver wasn't in the best shape either, mind you. But your heart was perfectly fine. So we decided to spare you some weeks of agony and just cut it off at the source."

America brows furrowed at the story, setting a hand on his abdomen in where he figured his pancreas would be. His organs weren't going back to normal? And even this time when they put him under for a heart transplant, he was out for two weeks instead of just a week or ten days.

Just what the hell was happening to his body?

"So we decided to splurge a bit for you considering that, yes, that was something that couldn't be helped." Japan added, noticing that the other looked much more concerned than they would have thought him to be able the matter.

"At least there was more money in the end." China noted as he sighed, standing up to his full height, which wasn't much, and gestured for Japan to come back over to his side. "But, don't worry about that. Just try to eat and relax."

"… I'm not hungry."

"America-san." Japan murmured, glancing over to China before setting a hand on his shoulder. "I know it is concerning to hear that you've lost two weeks from your schedule. But it is better in the end. You have been spared a long recovery time filled with painful recovery." At seeing the blonde barely nod in acknowledgement, Japan nodded once back, retreating back to his brother, "you must eat to feel better, so you can go home do what you need to do."

"Right."

"Just call if you need us," China noted, seeing the other slump against the bed. He cast another glance to Japan before the two headed out, leaving the door open a bit just in case.

America sighed as he was left on his own. Just what the hell was happening to his body to make him regenerate so late? He reached forward to take hold of the freshly hot salmon burger, getting a careful grip on it before taking a large bite out of it.

It was going to take him a super long time to explain to Canada why he missed out on their planned hang out time for the umpteenth time.


End file.
